Thursday 16 September 2004

The Prime Minister announced his commitment to a government Marine Bill in a speech to the Prince of Wales' Business and the Environment Programme on 14 September 2004. He said "I believe there are strong arguments for a new approach to managing our seas, including a new Marine Bill".

WWF believes that one single Marine Bill can solve the many contemporary problems in the marine environment by establishing a long-term, holistic vision for the marine ecosystem.

The government's Marine Bill must:

• conserve the UK's last living wilderness by protecting nationally important marine habitats and species;


• extend a similar "spatial" planning system on UK land to UK waters;


• aid the recovery of fish stocks and a sustainable future for the fishing industry;


• introduce an integrated marine management system with sufficient power to oversee all the pressures on the marine environment and arbitrate where necessary to prevent over exploitation of the UK's waters.

If robust enough, the Marine Bill could advance the government's sustainable development agenda. The Bill could reform the offshore development process by establishing the framework for marine spatial planning. This will streamline development decisions to fast track the consents process for sustainable projects, such as renewable energy schemes.

Extending spatial planning to the marine environment will stimulate investment by giving developers the efficiency and long-term regulatory certainty they need.